Online marketing is the hottest thing in the business world today. According to statistics, a majority of clients rely on search engines such as Google to find goods and services within their localities and beyond. As such, it is almost mandatory today for every business owner or manager to have a business website in place. However, having a site is one thing and attracting online traffic is another.

To maximally benefit from online marketing, you must ensure that your company’s website is among those appearing on the first pages of prominent search engines whenever potential clients search for particular keywords. To achieve this, you will need a boost from several Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tools. Here are five of the most effective tools that will help you get a top SEO ranking and a subsequent substantial online traffic.

Google PageSpeed InsightsAmong the SEO practices that determine the ranking of a website is its usability and speed. The Google PageSpeed Insights tool helps you to know how usable your company website is on a variety of devices like desktops and smartphones. Most importantly, the tool checks the loading time for your URL and advice you on the areas to improve on.

Google TrendsHow you phrase keywords on your company website and blogs go a long way in determining how much traffic comes your way. Going by the general SEO practices, the value of a keyword changes with seasons and localities. Google Trends helps you to know which search terms are trending at a given time and which ones are popular in particular regions.

DeepCrawlThe content you write on your company website and blogs may at times be a hindrance to the success of the site on different search engines. DeepCrawl scrutinizes information on the site and points out the various technicality problems that you may need to iron out to push your website up the rank.

QuickSprout Website AnalyzerThis is a tool that comprehensively analyzes and give solutions to nearly each of the common SEO practices. The tool will tell you which links are mostly associated with your company website, what your competitors are doing, and the tags to make in your content.

Responsive Design TestThis tool will help you know how your company website appears on different devices. The tool will help you have sharp websites both on computers and phones, consequently raising your SEO ranking.​There are numerous tools out there that can significantly impact your company’s SEO ranking. However, the few discussed in this article are good for a start.

In writing this post, I wondered about the spelling of 'Optimize'. I often see it spelled with both an s and a z. According to the research, "OptimiZe" is the American spelling, and "optimiSe" is British spelling (also Canadian). The academically correct version depends on who your audience is. So, that was the first tip... on to the actual SEO tips of the day:

Submit your site to business directories, and research into niche directories. (Niche Directories provide links to sites that focus on a similar theme or that relate to the same industry.)

Offer referrals or have a competition to encourage others to link to your site, or give a testimonial for your website.

Link your blog, RSS, Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin together so that you only need to update one.

The easiest way to increase your Google rankings is to increase the size of your website. That's the reason why Wikipedia ranks #1 on Google for so many keywords.

The simplest way to increase the size of your website is to add a blog and post to it as frequently as possible. The more frequently you can post, the faster you will see an increase in rankings and traffic.

Focus on producing the highest quality articles you can for your blog. Educate, inform and entertain... don't sell! Adding value (instead of selling) will result in more links to your website and higher SEO rankings.

You already know about the great potential in social networking sites for marketing your business, but you may not have thought of using the YouTube digital marketing channel as a part of your social media marketing mix, especially if your business isn’t media-related. However, it is a top way to show off your products or services, while engaging your current customers and reaching potential ones.

The possibilities are endless on how you can create intriguing videos and here are a few ways of using YouTube to drive traffic to your website that you should use once you commit, the top three of which are described below.

Top Way #1 – Identify the Keywords that Need to be Included in the Video YouTube is the worlds 2nd largest search engine. It has hundreds of millions a user a day and every day thousands of hours of video content are added. YouTube is 4th largest web property in the world and is on the path to become the source of advertising and publishing new content.

Use the most highly searched, relevant keywords in your video title and description. There are tools that you can use to help you discover the keywords that are relevant to your business.

You can change your video’s title and description at any time if you find that the video is no longer coming up high in searches or if you want to explore a new “keyword market.” The right keywords will get you ranked higher in both YouTube and search engine searches.

When thinking of a title for your video, you should consider descriptive, eye catching phrases that the user would think of inserting in the search field in a search Engine. Possibly adding dates, time, location or something more unique and specific can drive higher ranking to your video.

When you add a description to your video, try to use complete sentences, add details like place, location, dates and something the user can relate to. When adding tags to your video always be consistent, use descriptive keywords and avoid keyword stuffing.

YouTube highly recommends using there Insight tool which gives results of demographics and data that can give you a better hand on whats working and whats not. Insight will help generate reports that tell you where there traffic is arriving from, what keywords are being searched and provide data that will help you see which target audience is viewing your video.

Top Way #2 – Include a Transcript of the Video The transcript makes it easier for search engine spiders to identify the topic of your video, so indexing is more accurate, and any keywords in the dialog of your video get included, too, which can translate to higher ranking. Transcripts should be saved in the .txt format and can be uploaded using the Edit Captions button on your video’s YouTube page.

Top Way #3 – Include a Call to Action Perhaps the most important tip is to include a "call to action" in your video. In other words, tell the viewer what you want them to do (visit your site), why they should do so (for example, to purchase the product you’ve just showcased), and give them the means to do it.

There are several ways to go about it. There is a call-to-action overlay that you can customize to take viewers directly to your site from within the video.

In addition, remember to include your domain name in the description – use the complete URL to create an automatic hyperlink. You can also add annotations to your video.

These small, pop-up boxes can be used for things like recommending other related videos of yours, reminding viewers to subscribe to your channel and to like and share the video.

Want to share your Facebook business page with all of your friends? First, sign into your Facebook profile (personal page). Then navigate to the url of your business page (i.e. www.facebook.com/your business name. If you are currently an admin of the business page, you will see a tab on the right side under Admins that says 'Invite Friends'. When you click on that button, the default window pops open to 'recent interactions', but if you hold down that drop down menu, you can select 'Search All Friends'. Click on each check box button of the individuals that you want to share your business Facebook page with then click submit. A confirmation window pops up stating 'We've let your friends know about your Page."

Every day I get the question, "How can I get found on search engines" or "What can I do to improve my seo results?" When you type in this question on Google search, you get over 9 MILLION results (most of which offer "guaranteed top of page one" for a mere $1,000/month!) I wish I had that secret formula, but the answer is not that simple.

Now, Google has introduced 'Search plus your World', and now search results get even better by including photos, posts, and more from you and your friends. When signed in with Google+, you’ll find personal results and profiles of people you know or follow. You can even expand your world by discovering people related to your search.

Here is a great explanation of the difference in search results (whether you are logged into Google+ or not) by Lee Odden, CEO of @TopRank:

Logged out – Google search results when you or other users are not logged in are as close to “generic” as you’ll get, but they are still customized according to your geographic location and your click activity during the session. The days of generic search results that can be predictably viewed by more than one person in different locations is gone. If you do search while logged out, you’ll get a more generic experience than logged in – so it’s worth noting the difference.

Logged in – Users of Google services who are logged in while searching will almost certainly be presented with unique search results. Personalization can be influenced by a variety of factors, including the recent social signals integration of Google+ into Google search results – aka Google Search Plus Your World and especially from the universal Google product data sharing that will start March 1st 2012. Other influences include past search history, geographic location and your interaction with search results are factors for Google to adjust search results just for you. Keep in mind, logged in or out, there are over 20o signals used to sort search results.

Take a look at the video below, to learn more about the new way that search results work:

If you keep seeing a name, it starts to sink into your memory. This is basically the same strategy to increase your search engine optimization (SEO). To maximize this effort, you want to spread your company’s name on as many useful websites as possible whether it be a social networking site or maybe a search engine.

Having your company be active on different sites. This will increase the average user’s knowledge of your company. Here are some ways to do this.

Use blogs and free social networking websites to post articles about your company.--Make comments on other blogs or social pages.--Aside from posting articles, you should try to leave comments on other sites – especially ones that have similar interests to your company. What can happen? Users will check out your company’s profile on the social networking site and your webpage. Make it meaningful or it may get deleted.

Wikipedia: get your company on it.--When something comes up on Wikipedia, people assume that it is credible. It is after all the modern enclyopedia. But getting on it can be a challenge. It usually requires a Wikipedia-approved writer. Also, some people do not know that it should come from someone other than at your company and should be newsworthy. Another plus to Wikipedia is that it feeds directly into Facebook and that means more chances that people will connect to your company. Wikipedia entries often show up at the top of search results.

Sell your product on multiple websites.--Aside from selling your service or product on your own website, why not try Craigslist, eBay, and Amazon.com? By putting your product on these types of sites, you can increase the links back to your site and increase your SEO for organic search.

So, just like commercials, the more information about your company available to internet users, the better it is for business. Of course, the information can’t be a jingle; instead it needs to be helpful information on history and service. By doing this, you will increase awareness of your company and reach a wider pool of potential clients.

You've been in business a long time and you've had a lot of press releases written over the years. So you know what it takes to capture the attention of the press and get your business in the limelight. But what if you're making your move online and you want to publish press releases on your website or distribute them to press agencies over the Internet. Should they be re-written?

This is a tricky question because in the end a press release is a press release. It serves one purpose. You are trying to win the attention of news editors in order to get them to write a story about you. Is there a different strategy for online press releases?

Yes and no.

You'd write the press release for online distribution pretty much the same way you'd write it for off line distribution except for one big difference. It's called SEO. Search engine optimization.

Your press release will get a lot more attention if it is written as much for the search engine audience as it is for the news audience. That means you want it to rank well for specific key phrases that people (news professionals) will search for.

Also, you must realize that your press releases published online have the potential to be read by members of the general public so you really have three audiences: 1) Search engines; 2) News professionals; 3) The general public. As long as you address the needs of your three audiences, your press releases will do their jobs well.